TALENTED AMATEUES

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 28, 1 August 1929, Page 5

TALENTED AMATEUES

AND WELL TRAINED

Quite a large house greeted Mr. Clement May and his students in the Concert Chamber of the Town Hall last evening. As a students' recital is primarily an occasion for the display of immature talent, it may be as well to start from the bottom upwards, and to say that one of the most delightful items was a children's quartet, "The House That Jack Built" (with action), followed by solo recitals by each of the four little girls; their names are Patricia Holmes, Rene Nelson, Marjory Elliott, and Edna Lamb. Youth wasalso stamped indelibly on Master Robert Chyne as he played "Uriah Heep," and yet he presented the droning hypocrite so faithfully that this young-old picture of L'riah will be remembered when many others have faded. A little more grown up was John Watchnyn's "Artful Dodger." a triumph of make-up and panto mime. Facially eloquent, and possessing temperament, Errol Muir made a success of a monologue, "Home, Sweet Home,'" and was deservedly encared. Cedric Muir showed far more than usual promise in "If Life Were' a Play," letting himself go and carrying, the audience with him. Miss Xaney Owen, with rather a demure gift for humour, recited a Stephen Leycock piece very well, and Miss Evelyn. Goldsmith recited ■ with musical acconi paniment. Miss Marion Godber's recitation from "The Taming of the Shrew" was the concluding speech of the tamed Katharina, and was delivered with appropriate sweetness, Somewhat too sweet, perhaps, was Miss Dorothy Palm-Miller's Juliet, yet her performance in Apt 3, Scene 5, of the tragedy showed promise, and the support given by Mr. W. J. Mountjoy (Capulet), Miss Clarice L. Ross (Lady Capulet), and Miss Edith Hind (the Nurse) was of high quality. In the scene ("Julius Caesar") in which Cassius tempts Brutus to conspiracy, both Mr. Walter J. Hall (Brutus) and Mr. W. J. Mountjoy (Cassius) spoke their lines with refreshing distinctness, the latter being somewhat the better. The best piece of elocution and dramatic art was, of course, the Wolsey soliloquy of Mr. May himself. The best team work was shown in a "David Copperfield" sketch played in the' true Dickens spirit by Mr. Norman Aitken (Micawber), Mr. Hedley Aitken (David Copperfield), Miss Hazel .Eichardsop, (servant girl), Mias Dorothy Seymour (landlady), .Miss Lottie Pastall (Mrs. Micawber), and others. Mr. May and Miss Nora B. Pringle presented a more modern Romeo and Juliet scene- in "Breaking the Ice." The average merit was one that both teacher and pupils may well be proud of.